Home Remedies for Sunburns

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Home Remedies for Sunburns

Having a sunburn is not pretty. There could be many reasons causing a sunburn. For example, you forgot to apply your sunscreen, you perhaps missed a spot or your sunscreen had expired. Whatever the reason may be, you’re now in a painful and itchy predicament and you need a solution.

There are some easy ways to ease the pain and find relief fast when you have a sunburn. Here are some of the best home remedies for sunburn relief:

Image: medicalnewstoday

Iced Water

Perhaps the most convenient method on this list is to use water. It’s easily available and doesn’t really have much of a cost, we drink it all the time. It’s a pretty straightforward solution, to used iced water to provide sunburn relief. All you need to do is to pour some water inside a bowl with some ice for a few minutes.

When the water is cold enough, soak a cloth or towel on the cold water. Once the cloth/towel is soaked enough, apply it on your burn to feel instant relief. Keep repeating this process until the cloth becomes warm, and then soak it in the cold water again. Using this simple remedy several times a day for a few minutes will do the trick.

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If your skin is itchy due to the sunburn, then there’s more you can do. You can get relief powder packets such as this one. The aluminum acetate in powders such as the one I’ve linked help prevent the skin from becoming too itchy. Apply these home remedies to the affected areas a few times a day for a speedy recovery.

Over the Counter Remedy

OTC remedies are easy to apply because you can get stuff without a prescription. It’s easy to go to a pharmacy or even order something online. Here are a few things that you should look into buying for their great healing properties:

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is highly popular in the skincare industry. It’s known to have numerous benefits which include the skin as well. One such benefit of Aloe is that its gel can be applied to wounds or burns for relief. The gel helps in easing the pain and starts the healing process for the skin.

Aloe vera gel is also a great moisturizer. Due to its moisturizing property, the gel boosts the skin’s elasticity which helps it heal. Aloe can speed up the healing rate from burns by up to nine days. In order to use Aloe vera, simply break the plant leaf in half and apply the ‘juice’ or ‘gel’ to the skin. Otherwise, you can buy pure aloe vera gel from the pharmacy too, both ways work.

Anesthetic

The benefit of an OTC remedy is that it can heal mild sunburn cases easily at the comfort of your home. Products containing benzocaine, benzyl alcohol, lidocaine, or diphenhydramine hydrochloride, typically found in Anesthetic sprays are very helpful.

Moreover, sprays are much easier to apply than creams or ointments (which may hurt when applying as well). However, avoid spraying directly on your face. It’s better to spray a piece of cloth or a cotton pad and then apply it gently on your face. This is to protect your eyes, otherwise, you can spray directly elsewhere without worry.

Add baking soda to bathwater

Baking soda is useful for a host of different reasons. Whether it’s being used for a neat science experiment or whitening your teeth, you can always find a use for it. In the case of sunburns, it’s no different. Bicarbonate found in the soda can help soothe skin inflammation that comes with a sunburn.

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Baking soda also helps in reducing itching and in general, helps in treating sunburn. Therefore, it’s a good idea to add a bit of baking soda into your bath for some natural relief. You don’t need a lot either, just a handful will do. Soak for 20 minutes and you’ll start to feel the difference right away.

Green Tea

Green tea has been known for its great benefits as an antioxidant and detox drink. It’s the go-to drink if someone is looking to lose weight because of its property to help burn calories. However, the antioxidants in green tea are also useful in protecting the skin against a sunburn.

Green tea protects the skin against the inflammation caused by harmful UV rays of the sun. You can also apply it to the skin regularly for protection against skin cancer. In order for the green tea extract to be effective, you need about 3 milligrams of the green tea extract EGCG per square inch of skin. Roughly, one cup contains 20-30 mg of EGCG.

Therefore, you will probably need more than one cup. However, you can divide it into two methods of application. You can sip the first cup normally as you would for any hot drink. For the next cup, let it cool a little and then slowly dab it on the skin with a cloth or cotton ball after being exposed to the sun. You can also mix green and mint tea for added effect. Overall, it works quite well for people with sunburn issues.

Soak in Oats

It’s not just breakfast that you can use Oats for. Aside from being highly popular for breakfast and fitness enthusiasts, Oats have skin-soothing properties as well. It helps in reducing inflammation and naturally heals a sunburn.

That’s because Oats are packed with essential nutrients for the body, a lot of which actively fight against inflammation. Therefore, when paired a sunburn, that causes inflammation in the skin, it acts as a good counter. In order to use Oats for your skin, simply stuff something with oats, it can be anything, then place under a tap and run some cool bathwater.

Soak for 15 or 20 minutes with the setup above and then dry yourself via other means than a towel. If you use a towel, try to avoid wiping the oats off your face which would make the entire process above useless. Applying this remedy technique will really help the recovery of your skin, apply it every day for maximum benefits.

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Parker holds a masters in computer science, but her love for movies and everything that goes into making them forced her to divert her strength to entertainment world. She has been interviewed a number of celebrities in her previous jobs.